Portable burial-vault.



' allowe to escape by" suitable the water should UNITED ',str-Aras PATENT' OFFICE.'

WILLIAM maar, on cnowN PoIN1,. 1NDIANA.g

and useful Im rovements'in Portable Buriall' Yaults, of which the following is a speciiica tion. Myinvention is in. the nature of an improved portable concrete burial-vault or Asarcopha'gua adaptedv to receive a casket.

\ It 1s designed" to secure a thoroughly dry rece tacle for a body buried in wet ground 'or q'uic sands. y f n The object is not so -inuch to make a vault `linpervous to the percolation of water through'its walls, (since all concrete vaults are more or less ,porous,) but rather to ,take care of such percolation by providing means whereb `any accumulation of watermay be drainage and the ingress of such accumulations prevented from rising to the casket by a pneumatic cushion of gas maintained in the'vault and around the casket and which servestoresist they entranceA of water into the casket incase gain access to the interior of thevault.

My fnvention 'consists in a vault` made of cement concrete in which the two side walls and tp'o end walls 'are made integral without any joints or seams and with'the 'bottom and top o en, forming a four-walled integral curb an( having a recessed inner e ge.

When sunk in the ground, a detachable bottom is placed within the four walls ofthe vault at an' elevation of about eighteen inches from the bottom and sustained u blocks of 'concrete in the bottom o 4the grave, and adetachable to or coveris arranged to fit tightly the recessln the upper edges of the fou!` side walls and ishermetically sealed by a lutin of cement around the said up er edges of the sidewalls to maintain the air-tight inclosure of the casket to enable it tol act as a pneumatic caisson, as hereinafter described.

Fgure 1 is a perspective'view of my improved '.burial-vault with a portion of its side walls. broken away to expose the interior. Fig?. 2 isia cross-section taken on the line 2 2 0f ig. l.'y

In the drawings, MV V2 V.z

.four sidewalls my improved burin-vault, which are internally formed bp being` betweensuitable collapsible orms ormoldsections. These side walls are made of the Sp*orljcaton'or` Lettzflvatent. i l Appuntamenti mamita7,1906.V manila;season.r

on pillow-4 represent tlie olded Eeuwig-yam,

v Pad June 19, 190e.

[best 'Portland cement, and in the fourri h t Y le angles of the `corners are embedded suita angle-ironsG to' give stability to the vault, so as to permit it to l bemovedfrom place to place.v 'A his portion of the vault serves vto act as a curb when sinking it in wet ground, as hereinafter described.A

The bottom of thefvault is formed of a separable section P, which may also be made of cement orl of stone, Eclosely fitted to .the

ThisA bottom is susside walls ofthe vault.

of y about ei hteen tained' 'at anelevation inches above the lower edge ofthe si e and.

end,wal1sv of the curb, so as to leave a considerable'spa'ce below said bttomffor the accumulat'ion of any water which may gain access tothe vault. 'f

M M are pillow-blocks of cement concrete arranged transversel vin the'grave below the level of the'bottomv the level of the lower edges of the si e walls of the curb. f.

Upon `the detachable platform P is sustained the casket X.

The upper edges ofthe sidewalls are recessed or rabbetedat L on the inner side tov forma seat to receive the detachable top T, composed'of a slab of concrete or anyother suitable material, and .the oove formed between they edges of this top and the ed es of thekside'walls/is to be filled with a suita le lutin ofcement, so scale joint resolving the vault after the .casket is sealed therein into a tightly-inclosed caisson.

and extendin down to as to form ahermetically f In making use of my vault' in rwet ground or quicksand the excavation for the vault is started'a little larger than the vault. After water begins to appear thel curb portion V V V2 Vz of tion. vThe grave-digger thengets inside this the vault islowered -into the excavaf curb and continuesto throwut the dirt from the open bottom ofithis curb', the curb gradually sinking in the soft gronnd as thls diging proceeds until the proper depth has been attained. The pillow-b ocks M M are then placed inside the grave, thecasketsuporting.'t bottom P is placed on the pillowlllocks,the "casket loweredthereupon, and the cover T is then'put ona .'gdo'wn with cement.

Beforesfclo'sing the cover T down uponfthe ,iside 'vv-alla-l of the curb,any suitable chemical is placedywithin the ,chamber of the' vault above the platform, which chemical is de signeii -byl'gradual decomposition to producevld tightly llited lico IIC

a illing of gas in and around the casket within the vault and generates a pneumatic ressure within the vault, which tends .to orce outwardly all liquids which may iindtheir way into the vault. After the cover T has been tightly luted down this pneumatic cushion within the vault generates a longcontinued pressure that forces outwardly all Water or other liquids and prevents them from rising to the level of contact with the casket. If desired, the chemical selected may be incorporated with or composed of suitable antiseptics to contribute to the preservation oi the body.A

Various receptacles may be placed within the vault outside of the casket to hold 'the chemicals used to generate the pneumatic cushion. These may be in the nature of small gas-generators, or a simple vase, such as I have shown at Z, may in some cases be suficient with slowly-decomposing chemicals.

I am aware that vaults and caskets have been made of cement in various -forms and thatv a tight covering (having. closed sides7 ends, and to has been placed over a casket, like an, inve ted bell-jar, to trap a cushion of air and hold back the access of water from a casket resting on elevated supports in a grave, and I do not claim this broadly. My invention is distinctive, in that my vault has its two sides and two ends integrally formed without joints and has an open top and bottom, so as to permit a man to stand in the saine and throw out the wet earth or quicksand while the heavy vault slowly settles down to its full depth. For this purpose the lower edges of the Walls should be suliiciently thin to permit the walls to settle down-fi. e., there should be no broad bat the bottom edges of the walls, but th latter are made of uniform thickness from top to bottom to facilitate downward movement, My invention operates on the principle of a coller-dam or wellcurb'while excavation is in process, and when the cover is tightly cemented on it forms then a tight caisson, which hermetically incloses the casket and holds back the approach of water to the casket.

If the interval between sinking of the curb and the insertion of' the casket is so great as to allow the water to rise in the curb, it is to bc hailed or pumped out iinmediatel)r before lowering the casket, and after the casket is inserted and the top luted down with a hermetically-sealed joint the iimeumatic pressure within, increased by the generation of gases, will keep the water-level always below the bottom I on which the casket rests.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A burial-vault consisting of a coller! dam or curb portion whose sides and ends are integrally constructed of cement, but with open top and bottom, the walls of the same being made perpendicular and ot uniform thickness and having along the inner side of its upper edge a continuous recess and a detachable cover fitting this recess and adapted to be hermetically sealed therein.

2. A burial-vault consisting of a cofferdam or curb portion whose sides and ends are integrally constructed of cement but with open top and bottom, the walls of the same being made perpendicular and of' uniform thickness and having along the inner side of the uipcr edge a continuous recess, a detachable cover litting this recess, pillowblocks arranged within the bottom of the inclosure and a platform mounted on the pillow-blocks.

WILLIAM PARRY,

Witnesses:

JOHN BROWN, A. U. SAMMoN. 

